Graznaphor

"In the depths of the Nap'tor the Graznaphor roam. With gangling arms, and prying hands, they claw and scratch through the barren 'Tor realm. Fear the Graznaphor, for once their suckling of the rotting py'rus flesh is complete, they will come for you, for Fear they will eat."

Final image.

Close up crop.

Process

August Lighting Studies.

Medieval Stormtrooper

A fan art piece I did to coincide with the release of the latest Star Wars movie.

Process breakdown

1. Linework

2. Values

3. Colour overlay

4-6. Details

Creature of the Forest

"A soft clicking filled the void, then a long sigh. The sound that followed made us all stop. A soft hacking that grew steadily until it had reached a pitch that was almost deafening. We swung around. Our flashlights split the night air as we searched, panicked, for we knew what that sound meant. We knew, because they had warned us. We had been warned. And we had not listened.” - Matthew Winfield.

Process breakdown

1. Linework

2. Values

3. Details

4. Details and colour correction

Model Study

A Photoshop painting study I finished last night from a reference image I found online.

Original here: https://pinterest.com/pin/477522366720082087/

Fundamentals of Lighting lesson 1.

Finally! I recently started another Schoolism course. The last time I did one was back in 2015 with Dice Tsutsumi and Roberto Kondo called Painting With Light and Color, which I found super beneficial. The one I started last week is called Fundamentals of Lighting by Sam Nielson.

Wow. I must say that this course is exactly what I needed. The first lesson Sam jumps right in with the Properties of Light and Advanced Lambertian Reflection, throwing in a bit of quantum probability for good measure. I won't go too deep with what lesson one covers, but rather show you how I tackled the homework assignment.

The assignment required that I paint and light a simple scene in greyscale. All that we were provided with was a basic line drawing and a light source, and it was up to us to render the final form. 

Below is my final image, after I went through and critted my previous test. The illustration is painted to Photoshop CS6.

Final painting.

Below is the scene I painted before I went through the critted lessons. From what I interpreted the shadow isn't particularly true to the light source which you can see in the image below. The "terminator" is also not very accurate.

First painting.

Following some of Sam's tips I created the light rays, and mapped in the shadows and their falloff as well as what I hope to be a more accurate terminator. The green line is where the terminator would more likely be situated, and the purple markings are an indication of the shadows.

Lighting guide.

I must just put out a disclaimer that I am doing the self-motivating subscription course, and my work isn't individually critted by Sam. The changes I did to my first pass were done by observing the crits to a fellow "classmates" artwork which are provided as part of the course material. 

Terminology and links:

Terminator: The area where the form transitions from light to dark. 

Some of Sam's brushes: Linked from here and here.

Cape Town International Animation Festival 2017

This past weekend in Cape Town was the Cape Town International Animation Festival at the River Club in Observatory. I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak on a panel about digital colouring with fellow artists Remi Abrahams and Caroline Vos on the Friday afternoon. The conversation was mediated by Neal Strydom from Pixelsmith Studios and centered around digital colouring and its place in the animation pipeline. 

On the Saturday I was a bit more relaxed after being a bit tense on the Friday before doing the talk, and was allowed the opportunity to demo the latest Wacom Cintiq 27qhd that Jim from DDS had on display. Man, that piece of equipment was so rad. It really puts my 24 inch ;) to shame!

It was really awesome to see such a super lineup of people attending and speaking at the festival, and I really believe Di Makings, and her team, did a superb job of putting it all together! Really amped for next year, but this one really set the bar quite high!

Photo by Carmen Ziervogel.

Hamming it up with Marc Moynihan at Content Bar's selfie booth ⊙﹏⊙

Tulips and Chimneys Valentine's Day illustration

At the beginning of this year I began working as a digital painter at an animation and concept development studio in Cape Town called, Tulips and Chimneys. This is an artwork I created as a promotional piece for Valentine's Day. The image directly below is the final piece.

Below is the original line drawing that I scanned into Photoshop to be painted. It consists of various separate line drawings: the central creature on the mound, the border, and the banner. All comped together in Photoshop. Other elements such as the foxes and the birds were added later. 

Below left: The thumbnail sketch. Below right: Pencil sketch.

The line drawings were done using a Uni-ball Pin 0.05 mm pen.

Bottom left colouring in Photoshop on the Cintiq24hd, and the final print on archival paper on the bottom right.

Environment Studies

Schoolism environment lighting studies from around the house.

The image below is the same scene lit at different times of the day.

Mad Max: Fury Road Fan Art

I watched Mad Max: Fury road earlier this month. I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice and drew these illustrations :)

Work in progress for Lyon the Dragon Heart cover.

1.

2.3.4.

5.

6.7.

1. The final image, with title overlay.

2. A rough scamp of the proposed idea.

3. Detailed line drawing.

4. Value underlay.

5. Three colour variations for client to choose from.

6. Blocking in colours.

7. Detailing of image and bringing to a completed state.